masquerade
- 01 C1 Advanced
a formal party or dance where everyone wears masks and fancy clothes.
a social gathering, typically a ball, where participants wear elaborate costumes and masks.
Simple“The charity hosted a grand masquerade where guests wore beautiful gold masks.”
In context“The annual masquerade at the embassy required all attendees to remain masked until the stroke of midnight, adding an air of mystery to the gala.”
Synonymsmasked ballcostume party - 02 C2 Proficiency
an event where fans dress up as characters and perform short plays or dances.
a competitive event at a fan convention where costumed participants perform skits or choreographed routines.
Simple“We spent months rehearsing our dance for the anime masquerade.”
In context“The convention's masquerade featured high-production skits that showcased both craftsmanship and theatrical talent.”
Synonymscosplay contest
“Such is King’s popularity, supporters chant his name and a couple last season donned fancy dress to masquerade as him, wearing lanyards, sky-blue ties and bouffant wigs.”
“The most powerful of the three attack variants causes the infected Windows machine to masquerade as an iPhone.”
The noun is borrowed from Middle French mascarade, masquarade, masquerade (modern French mascarade (“masquerade, masque; farce”)), and its etymon Italian mascherata (“masquerade”), from maschera (“mask”) + -ata. Maschera is derived from Medieval Latin masca (“mask”): see further there. The English word is cognate with Late Latin masquarata, Portuguese mascarada, Spanish mascarada. The verb is derived from the noun.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.